Seattle Percussion Collective

Allen Otte, percussion guru and driving force behind pioneering ensembles Blackearth Percussion Group and Percussion Group Cincinnati, once told me hed assumed hed spend his career playing in orchestras (his favorite composer: Berlioz), but that he came to a point where hed learned to play the triangle part in Brahms Fourth as perfectly as it could possibly be played. And then what? This drive to explore beyond the classical standard reps limited opportunities turns percussionists into any school or citys most enthusiastic new-music advocates: the Seattle Percussion Collective, for example. In fact, percussionists willingness to explore often goes beyond just playingspeaking and moving are frequent requirements in the meta-musical works by composers like Mauricio Kagel (instrumental theater was his term) and John Cage, both on tonights program. Kagels Pas de cinq calls for sounds to be made not only by hitting things, but by walking on them: paper, metal, wood, and bubble wrap. Also on the bill is a piece by Keiko Abe, whos done for the marimba what Chopin did for the piano, and a premiere for vibraphone and cymbals by Stuart Saunders Smith. GAVIN BORCHERT